Bull market —

Bitcoin price soars above $9 for the first time in almost a year

The currency's value has soared 40 percent in the last month.

The price of Bitcoins surged this week, rising above $9 for the first time in almost a year. The increase suggests growing public interest in the peer-to-peer cryptocurrency.

Last month, we marked the one-year anniversary of the Bitcoin bubble popping. We noted that after plunging for the last six months of 2011, the price of Bitcoin had begun to stabilize around $5. But almost as soon as we published that article, the currency began appreciating rapidly. Today, one Bitcoin is worth about $9.20—a 40 percent increase in a month.

The transaction volume of Bitcoins has increased dramatically since April. In April, there were rarely more than 10,000 transactions in a day. In July, there have consistently been more than 20,000 transactions each day.

What explains the newfound popularity of the cryptocurrency? We suspect the factors we identified in last month's article—vices like pornography and gambling—continue to be a significant factor in the currency's value.

But other new uses for the currency continue to pop up. Coinbase, a startup aiming to make Bitcoin more accessible to the masses, has been accepted by Y Combinator's summer class. That comes with a $164,000 investment.

The Verge notes that a student in Germany has built a Bitcoin vending machine. Insert a €1 coin in the slot and it will dispense a slip of paper with a link that can be used to cash in an equivalent value of Bitcoins, currently around 0.13 BTC.

And New World Notes points out that that there has been a growing volume of transactions between Bitcoins and Linden Dollars, the official currency of Second Life. Given that exchanges that convert Bitcoins to dollars have faced legal challenges, the ability to convert Bitcoins into other virtual currencies that are more readily tradable for dollars could boost the liquidity of the cryptocurrency.

Maybe someone can help me. I am looking fora n article I once read here, about bit coin and the darkernet. I think there was even cam girl accepting bit coin. Since the revamp, I have not be able to find it. Anyone know what I am talking about?

Dude. I am just making a joke. If you can't filtered out the google result yourself and read beyond the first line of entry. Then you just a f*king retard. stop insult on other people intelligent. The fact I didn't tinyurl prove that I trust the person ability to filtering the information.

And New World Notes points out that that there has been a growing volume of transactions between Bitcoins and Linden Dollars, the official currency of Second Life. Given that exchanges that convert Bitcoins to dollars have faced legal challenges, the ability to convert Bitcoins into other virtual currencies that are more readily tradable for dollars could boost the liquidity of the cryptocurrency.

Soon in the near future we'll have two economic systems, one very real, and one completely virtual, playing by ethereal ("but it's not property!") rules. Turning upside down the real system's notion of "theft" and "loss".

*snip*Dude. I am just making a joke. If you can't filtered out the google result yourself and read beyond the first line of entry. Then you just a f*king retard. stop insult on other people intelligents

Not really sure what happened there with that last sentence. . .

At any rate, the other google links weren't that helpful: lots of words, not much meaning. I managed to gather that the gubmint is dicking around with monetary system again. Hopefully this sort of thing will stop when we vote in Robot Nixon for President of Earth.

Goats have value too, but they aren't a currency, and neither is bitcoin.

Goats are not divisible or fungible and though they do alright at storing value don't work very well as a medium of exchange. That's why goats aren't a form of money. Bitcoins are divisible and fungible, store value (though that value may fluctuate), and work very well as a medium of exchange. I'll let you come to your own conclusions...

Linden Dollars is one of the few "in-game" currencies which it is not against the ToS of the game to buy and sell for real money. It has a real exchange rate, and you have to declare your Linden Dollar holdings on your tax forms because it counts as real money.

Actually, I hope this Bitcoin thing doesn't get _too_ popular or else it might take too long before we get around to testing some really well thought out digital coin proposals (which Bitcoin is not, as it has major flaws in common with the obsolete gold standard, for example).

*snip*Dude. I am just making a joke. If you can't filtered out the google result yourself and read beyond the first line of entry. Then you just a f*king retard. stop insult on other people intelligents

Not really sure what happened there with that last sentence. . .

I assume you just making a joke asking "What is QE3". So I followed with a lmgtfy link. According to other comment above, the first line of entry isn't the correct result. Then it is a failure. I think it is a insult to people's intelligent that they can't filter the information.

Goats have value too, but they aren't a currency, and neither is bitcoin.

Goats are not divisible or fungible and though they do alright at storing value don't work very well as a medium of exchange. That's why goats aren't a form of money. Bitcoins are divisible and fungible, store value (though that value may fluctuate), and work very well as a medium of exchange. I'll let you come to your own conclusions...

Goats have value too, but they aren't a currency, and neither is bitcoin.

Goats are not divisible or fungible and though they do alright at storing value don't work very well as a medium of exchange. That's why goats aren't a form of money. Bitcoins are divisible and fungible, store value (though that value may fluctuate), and work very well as a medium of exchange. I'll let you come to your own conclusions...

Soon in the near future we'll have two economic systems, one very real,

Pay attention to how financial crisis with Greece and Spain play out the next 12 months. It may turn out that both countries will have to invent a new currency over the weekend and the Euro will become fictious. I am hoping they turn to Bitcoins.

If I'm going to buy a fake currency, it's going to be ACOS or similar -- that I can melt down and sell for scrap if it's value as currency becomes deflated.

Spoiler: show

You probably have been hanging around the wrong (or right) places on the internet.

Though in reality vendors lists their prices in US dollars, the site then converts the prices in realtime to bitcoins as it fluctuates.

Whether anyone involved in these kind of websites, other than the website itself (which handles the escrow etc.) really holds onto any large amount is a good question.

On your scrap comment, I actually saw someone selling pennies by weight (all minted before a certain year). The argument being that if the dollar crashed, you could always melt them down for copper. Personally I'd rather have Krugerands for convenience, you can pay with them, and they don't take up a room.

@C Boy:

They wouldn't turn to Bitcoin because they wouldn't be able to manipulate that currency. They'd thus have the exact same problem they're having with the Euro.

The more uses there are for Bitcoin, the more "valuable" it will become. Those "uses" could be virtual currency in games, real goods in shops, trading into traditional currency, or another method of payment, but they all help out. As a tech geek, I'm amused by it purely from a cryptographic point of view.

Scorp1us wrote:

Maybe someone can help me. I am looking fora n article I once read here, about bit coin and the darkernet. I think there was even cam girl accepting bit coin. Since the revamp, I have not be able to find it. Anyone know what I am talking about?

In other news, suckers born per minute has also increased 40% over the past month...

Anyone who held Bitcoins just earned 40% which they can trade in to any other currency.

You sound like the sucker.

Unless, of course, they owned their Bitcoins since last year, eh? I mean its pretty easy to look at arbitrary start and end dates to make people look like winners and losers. Over time though, Bitcoins have not proven to be a stable or predictable investment.

Its just gambling. Except your paying real money to gamble with play money.

Normally I'd be okay with this, but if the author owns some Bitcoins, then there's a conflict of interest here since writing pro-bitcoin articles will no doubt increase demand for them and raise their price, benefiting the author.

*snip*Dude. I am just making a joke. If you can't filtered out the google result yourself and read beyond the first line of entry. Then you just a f*king retard. stop insult on other people intelligents

Not really sure what happened there with that last sentence. . .

I assume you just making a joke asking "What is QE3". So I followed with a lmgtfy link. According to other comment above, the first line of entry isn't the correct result. Then it is a failure. I think it is a insult to people's intelligent that they can't filter the information.

I'm hoping English is not your primary language. Otherwise, the only insult to "intelligent (sic)" is yours.

Since the bitcoin money supply is now equal to or greater than that of six small nations, perhaps you should. Admittedly, these are *small* nations, but Dominica (which has about the same money supply as bitcoins) is a significant Caribbean island.

*snip*Dude. I am just making a joke. If you can't filtered out the google result yourself and read beyond the first line of entry. Then you just a f*king retard. stop insult on other people intelligents

Not really sure what happened there with that last sentence. . .

I assume you just making a joke asking "What is QE3". So I followed with a lmgtfy link. According to other comment above, the first line of entry isn't the correct result. Then it is a failure. I think it is a insult to people's intelligent that they can't filter the information.

I'm hoping English is not your primary language. Otherwise, the only insult to "intelligent (sic)" is yours.

I admit. English isn't my primary language. I am also hoping you can read pass that, since you can figure out the meaning behind it. I could also grammar nazi your writing if you try to write something in my language. That is why this staying in the "stupid" comment section. Not trying to be the editor here. people get so serious here.

EDIT: Bitcoin is still a startup currency, to be sure, but right now you can transfer money much faster and cheaply (say, USD -> EUR) using bitcoins than any other method. Period. Wells fargo, for example, takes well over 5% if you include their poor EURUSD rates.

Bitcoin has a market cap (or money supply) of about a hundred million dollars. The computing network for bitcoin is faster than any other distributed network in the world, by an order of magnitude. Yes, it is rough on the edges, but so was the internet 15 years ago (remember Geocities in 1998?). And it is on track to be a disruptive currency, insofar as its role as a medium of exchange.

Soon in the near future we'll have two economic systems, one very real,

Pay attention to how financial crisis with Greece and Spain play out the next 12 months. It may turn out that both countries will have to invent a new currency over the weekend and the Euro will become fictious. I am hoping they turn to Bitcoins.

What why in the hell would they want to do that? The problem the southern countries have right now is the euro is a defacto gold standard much like how Bitcoins is a defacto gold standard.